Summary

Eighteen months ago Dr. Brian Holbrook's life spun out of control. Addicted to painkillers since a college football injury, Brian was caught writing multiple prescriptions for himself. Overnight his license to practice medicine was suspended, and the best job this former chief of cardiology could find was in a car rental agency. Now, after 18 frustrating months of insisting he is in full recovery, salvation comes in the form of a job offer at prestigious Boston Heart Institute. Brian's recovery will be carefully monitored but he will be part of a team of highflyers, treating patients and participating in tests of the revolutionary new drug Vasclear, which promises to reverse the effects of arteriosclerosis. Then, on his very first day at BHI, Brian receives disturbing advice from a fellow doctor and recovering addict:Get out while you can.Dazzled by the medical miracles being practiced around him, desperate to hold onto his job, Brian has yet another reason for wanting to discount the warning: he is determined to get his own father into the Vasclear test. The new drug may be the only way to save his life. But as the days pass it is plain to Brian that BHI's state of the art labs and shining operating rooms hide a terrible secret. Patients who have made startling progress are suddenly dying. A respected doctor has disappeared. The Vasclear test may be a nightmare of corruption, of sanctioned murder. And if his fears are justified, Brian may have made his father the next victim.

Author Notes

Michael Palmer was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on October 9, 1942. He graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He trained in internal medicine at Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals. Afterwards, he conducted research for the National Air Pollution Control Administration in Cincinnati in order to fulfill his two-year military obligation. He spent 20 years as a full-time practitioner of internal and emergency medicine and is currently an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society's physician health program.

His has written numerous books including The Last Surgeon, The Second Opinion, The First Patient, The Fifth Vial, The Society, Fatal, The Patient, Miracle Cure, Critical Judgment, Silent Treatment, Natural Causes, Extreme Measures, Flashback, Side Effects, and The Sisterhood.

Palmer died at the age of 71 on October 30, 2013 after suffering a heart attack and stroke. His novels Resistant (released May 20, 2014) and Trauma (released May 12, 2015) were released after his death.

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this flawed medical thriller about the marketing of a new drug by veteran writer Palmer (The Sisterhood), one plot twist too many turns a frightening vision of corporate greed into an excuse for prefab heroics. The drug is called Vasclear, a heart medication being developed at the Boston Heart Institute by Newbury Pharmaceuticals. The FDA is being pressured by a Massachusetts senator (who, it turns out, is secretly taking Vasclear himself) to approve the release of the drug. And Vasclear may be the magic wand that can save the life of Jack "Coach" Holbrook, whose health is declining after a quintuple bypass. Coach's son, Brian (an M.D. living at home and working as a rental-car gofer while he recovers from an addiction to painkillers), not only faces the ethical dilemma of stealing the drug if he can't place his father as a test patient but also finds evidence of potentially dangerous side effectsevidence that could derail the drug's release to the public. The characters are sitcom thin, the moral dilemma is barely raised before it's resolved and the inclusion of a Chechen Mafia subplot only serves to transport the story further into an unlikely realm, where otherwise efficient killers do nothing more dangerous than send the hero a threat in the mail and members of drug and alcohol recovery groups know more about pharmaceutical companies than the FDA. Palmer's thriller-friendly prose, pacing and plotting draw readers on here, but, like Vasclear, his novel should have spent more time in development before it hit the shelves. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

A disgraced doctor finds himself working in an experimental program where patients are dying mysteriously. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Excerpts

"Nellie's treadmill stress test was positive," Dr. Carolyn Jessup explained, "and a subsequent cath showed fairly severe coronary artery disease. She was a perfect candidate for randomization into the Vasclear study. Right, Nellie?" Nellie Hennessey, eyes closed, was breathing deeply and regularly. "Jennifer," Jessup went on, "maybe we should be giving her a tad less pre-op medication. If I have to stay awake for this, everyone does." She glanced over at the nurse, her eyes smiling. "Seriously, nice job. She's perfect.... Anyhow, Brian, Nellie's symptoms disappeared almost immediately and haven't returned. This is her third and last follow-up cath. Then she becomes an alumna." "What Vasclear group is she in?" Brian Holbrook asked, already knowing the answer. "Beta. Okay, Doc, you're on. Let's switch sides. You do the right heart and afterward I'll switch back and do the coronary-artery shots. Nellie's asleep so you're not being graded on this. Just relax and have fun." "Thank you." Surprised and pleased at being asked to do anything other than observe, Brian moved behind Carolyn to take her place at the table. "Everything on the Ward-Dunlop works pretty much like the one you're used to," she said, "except the controls are much more responsive, and the connections on the ports just click and lock." "Impressive," Brian said, proceeding with the pressure studies and dye injections. The nurse, Jennifer, was working beside him now, keeping a careful watch on Nellie, checking her blood pressure and IV. "Everything okay?" Brian asked her. "All systems are go," she replied. Brian took some pressure measurements through the catheter, then injected some dye to check the tricuspid and pulmonic valves. The moment he had thought might never come was here. He was back in the cath lab, regaining control, piece by piece, of his own destiny. "You seem pretty comfortable there, pardner," Jessup said, returning to her position to do the left heart and coronary-artery exam. "Just like riding a bike. She's got a pretty healthy-looking heart." "Wait till you see her coronary arteries. These pictures we're about to shoot are going to be the eighteen-month-afters. The befores are in the cine-library through the door just past the women's changing room. Did security give you a code for the keypad?" "They did." "Great. Sometime soon, go and take a look at Nellie's pre-Vasclear films. We've got two Vangard viewers in there. One for backup." "I'm impressed," Brian said. The viewers, from what he remembered, cost around twenty thousand dollars apiece. "You'll be even more impressed when you review her films," Carolyn said. "Now, let's take a look at her left heart and coronaries." The experimental Ward-Dunlop catheter was exceptionally easy to manipulate, and certainly showed up well on X ray. "Left anterior oblique cranial...right anterior oblique caudal..." Jessup called out each angle, waited for Andrew to position the X-ray camera, then injected some dye and activated the camera with her foot pedal. Overhead, one screen showed the bright white of the X-ray-opaque dye as it briefly filled Nellie's coronary arteries before being washed away, and another traced her heartbeat, oxygenation, and other vital signs. In the glassed-in control room to their right, the other nurse, Lauren, monitored duplicate screens, and kept watch over the machine that was recording the injections on videotape. Later, the tape would be reviewed by Jessup, and a report dictated. The width of every significant artery and every blockage would be carefully measured by computer and recorded. "...Right anterior oblique cranial," Carolyn said, completing the last of the five left coronary-artery views. "Okay, everyone, if there is anyone with reasons why this woman and this catheter should remain in holy matrimony, let him speak now or forever hold his peace.... There being no objections to removal of this line, I hereby do so." Carolyn withdrew the catheter with the same smoothness, the same confidence, as she had displayed throughout the procedure. But quite suddenly, a brief flurry of extra heartbeats appeared on the screen. Then another burst. A few moments later, Nellie Hennessey moaned. Then she opened her eyes. Then she began screaming. From the Hardcover edition. Excerpted from Miracle Cure by Michael Palmer All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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